Thanks, Commanche7 and NightHiker, for your kind remarks.

Just some more thoughts. In the work setting, I can envision the difficulty speaking with the EVACU8 on being a particular problem. In the places where I have worked, you have "fire wardens" who go around checking the rooms and directing people to the exits. It's tough to give directions, reassure frightened people, etc. when you can't speak easily. Then again, depending on the size of your staff and workplace, maybe everyone is capable of just LEAVING when the fire alarm goes off or smoke starts filling the office so talking is not so important and it's only a sort distance to the outside.

As I mentioned in my first post, I think the fact that the hood is tightly folded initially means that people should be informed of what the hood should look like fully deployed. When you first twist off the top, you just see this strap-like piece of cellophane (Kapton) unfurl a bit from inside the "can." If you don't know that you're supposed to unfold this folded up thing to expand the hood, I could envision stressed and panicky people thinking that they're just supposed to pull on this strap-like thing, and then keep pulling until something breaks.

Anyway, I think people should be told, or even better, shown what the deployed EVACU8 should look like so that they have a mental picture of what they're trying to get if they ever have to use it. It's like the life preservers on airliners. Y'know how they often have these straps that you bring around from the left and right and clip on somewhere. Then pull back on these other left and right tabs to tighten. It seems fairly logical when the crew demonstrates it, but if I had never seen one demonstrated before and didn't have a mental picture of what I was trying to achieve, I don't think I could figure out that donning procedure in an emergency situation where seconds count.

I don't wear dentures, but I'm wondering if people with dentures might have problems with the mouthpiece. Like I said, the unit's length sticking straight out tends to make it want to pull at your teeth. If your dentures aren't secured well or if you aren't biting down hard enough, I suppose your dentures could become disloged just from the weight of the EVACU8.

Anyway, just more EVACU8 musings.

I would love to hear anyone else's comments who own any other brand of smoke hood, particularly the Safe Escape. Too bad I didn't buy some before the EVACU8 recall. I remember that you could get them for around $35 each pre-recall, but now they're double that. Basically, the Safe Escape seems to have positioned itself as the EVACU8 substitute, with a similar price to the EVACU8.